A rolling bearing ring of a thrust needle bearing has conventionally been manufactured in a process below. Initially, a coil material obtained by winding up like a coil, a rolled steel material in a form of a thin plate is prepared. Then, the steel material in the form of the thin plate rolled back from the coil material is sequentially punched and formed. Thus, a formed object in a ring form having an approximate shape of a rolling bearing ring is obtained. Then, a setup step before heat treatment is performed. Then, the formed object in the ring form is subjected to heat treatment such as carburization. Thereafter, the formed object is quenched by cooling the formed object with air blast. Finally, the formed object is shaped by press-tempering the quenched formed object (tempering). A rolling bearing ring of a thrust needle bearing is manufactured in the process as above.
Die quenching has been known as a technique for forming a steel material. Die quenching is a technique for press-forming a heated steel material and simultaneously quenching the steel material by rapidly cooling the steel material in a die (for example, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2008-296262 (PTD 1)).